While welcome for its call to arms to women employees to show initiative, Berera's statement places the glass ceiling that women face in a somewhat different context.
She sought to put the onus on women to make the first move at the workplace and ensure they get what they deserve. This fails to capture the lived reality of most women, especially in India. It is very well to speak about breaking stereotypes but stereotypes often represent a slice of reality. It may be stereotypical, but no less true for that, to say that a woman is often forced to choose between the demands of the home and workplace. For a majority of women, the tug of war between their ambitions and their domestic duties is a real one.
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It is not always possible to show initiative at the workplace when there is a little baby at home. The difference between men and women in this regard is not just social, but biological. Even if we were to discard the lazy misogyny that links the worth of a woman with how well she balances home and office, we still find women facing all manner of pressures. Men who work long hours are lauded as alpha males working to change the fortunes of their organisation. The smell of testosterone dripping from these comments is unmistakable. But a woman, even when she has a support system, must always choose. Surely this is not something that can be blamed only on a lack of women's ambition to rise within the ranks.
Berera's remarks reminded me of a recent We The People, in which Barkha Dutt hosted Priyanka Chopra. An audience member raised the matter of the difference in the remuneration between actors and actresses, a topic on which Chopra has spoken before. Chopra agreed it's a real problem, and revealed that actresses earn about a tenth of their male counterparts. She then seemed to, if not justify, then make sense of this as an outcome of viewer preferences. "If a female-oriented film did Rs 300 crore - and Tanu Weds Manu did cross Rs 100 crore - we can ask for more pay," she said.
What Chopra was essentially saying is that producers do not mind paying actresses big bucks as long as films helmed by women work. This, like Ms Berera's assertion of the woman employee holding the cards of her success, is a rank simplification of the complex realities of gender in this country. Women's films are considered niche, feminist art that does not "connect" with the mass audience. On the contrary, mindless cinema with the actor beating up goons ends up earning hundreds of crores. To suggest that this is an issue between the producer and the actress is to overlook the plain fact that what gets made and what does not is an outcome of what people want to watch. An item girl gyrating lustily is fine; a woman leaving an abusive relationship not so much. To then put the ball in the woman's court, be it the employee or the actress, is a bit rich.
On the show, Chopra was also asked about her opinion of Dostana, in which gays were presented stereotypically. She defended the film, saying it is a comedy and that the men in the film, played by Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham, were not really gay. (They playact to get into the house of the girl they both have the hots for.) She added that every filmmaker has the right to show what he wants and it is up to the audience to decide if it is worth watching.
Tying it up in freedom of speech, as Chopra did, diverts from the issue. Indian society is at a stage where it needs all the education it can get to understand gender, sexuality and gender-based discrimination. When films offer a popular but lazy representation of a community, they may bring in the bucks but they do nothing to take the conversation over gender rights forward. If anything, they undermine the struggle for greater social acceptance by regurgitating the very images that are the basis of discrimination in the first place. The gay man becomes the flamboyant caricature, the ambitious woman the vamp. The power of the visual image ensures that this is how most people come to think of such characters even in their day-to-day life.
So yes, women must raise their voice and demand equality. But that is not enough. Our corporate and cultural leaders must also call out the deeply ingrained ways of thinking and being that hamper progress. That alone will help us usher greater, durable equality in the long run.
Every week, Eye Culture features writers with an entertaining critical take on art, music, dance, film and sport